In a story I'm drafting, the world in short has a society where all basic needs (food, drink, shelter, education, healthcare, etc.) are free and kept to a quality standard. As such, monetary value is limited to wants, upkeep, entertainment, or luxury. There's still magic, monsters, politicking, and all that good stuff.

The thought experiment has been cooking up conflicts and motives given those parameters.

I've already penciled in things like rage against monster-hunters for failing to protect a loved one, lust for knowledge of magics at all costs, cult followings, mad science, wanting to regress the system so they can place themself on top, and all other sort of base motivations like hedonism and evil for the sake of it.

But, I'm looking for more, and the sort of backstories that would inform them.

I just started with making a map for my fantasy story. It’s not done yet but do you guys have any tips / advice?

In my world, Alria, beings from non-shapeshifting species who obtain shapeshifting powers can sometimes lose control of their powers and involuntarily transform into sentient goo creatures for a period of time.

One of my characters, a bird person named Sheran Ardonvelle, has the ability to shapeshift into a few different avian forms. However, this power is the result of a curse, and she sometimes loses the ability to retain her corporeal form. This causes Sheran's body to slowly harmlessly melt into magical goo for about an hour until she regains control of her shapeshifting abilities. While in her gooey state, Sheran still resembles an anthropomorphic bird, just one made up of glowing magical slime.

Transforming into a sentient bird-shaped goo creature for an hour doesn't hurt Sheran, but it does look strange. When Sheran realizes she's about to melt, she just hides in her room and waits until she is no longer goopy. It used to be that she couldn't control when she would transform into goop, which would happen around 4 or 7 times a year. It wasn't until Sheran was an adult that she could control this ability, and she can now safely transform into her goo form whenever she wants. She rarely does this though, as it's more inconvenient than useful.

So, obviously when writing a book it has to be written in a real world language, (in my case English), but how do I go about incorporating other languages into my book? I have characters who’s names mean things in welsh, and I want that to be mentioned in the book as it’s relevant to the plot, but how do I do that when in a fantasy world wales would not even exist? Has anyone else done this and if so how did you do it and make it not weird? I know I could just easily mention the names welsh meaning, but I can’t very well acknowledge the existence of a place that exists in the real world when my fantasy world does not. I have tried just putting the words in there for now and seeing how it reads and it doesn’t sound completely weird but definitely a little off for fantasy. TIA

Pretty self explanatory question: what is something that your world(s) society/societies considers normal but is not normal in reality?

In my fantasy setting, the imperial royal family’s heirs are allowed to practice concubinage in the form of having the daughters of royal and noble families into their harems. The intent behind this practice is two fold: to allow those families closer access to the imperial family and to have the heirs and heiresses access to culture and ideas of the regions these lady courtesans represent (While they do have scholars from those areas that help provide lectures, but the lady courtesans provide comfort for the heirs and friendship for the heiresses).

In the first case, the imperial families were often depicted as divine (reasons for divinity vary depending on the civilization in question) but it’s because of this divinity that made many see them as demigods. This propaganda made them exceptions to the strict rules of chastity in which noble ladies would provide services for the imperial family and keep them closer to gods.

This also leads into the second part: the imperial families are often excluded from the outside world due to their sheltered lifestyles and thus outside views are needed to help provide perspective for the heirs and heiresses that may one day claim the throne. This isolated life where the family only really see each other at special events of theirs also has a slightly more unsettling side effect. Due to the heirs and heiresses having limited contact with each other, it is not uncommon for siblings to reach adolescence and begin fooling around with each other (especially if the siblings are sent to ward someplace else for a period of time). The concubinage is implemented a half measure for adolescent heirs to “practice and get it out of their system” and learn how to respect and treat a lady as well as prevent any further incidents of potential inbreeding.

Lore

The war of the Angelin and Daebolin, angels and devils, began when the devils struck a mortal blow against the Duelin, the creator god, placing him into a dying state. Though this did not kill him immediately, there is little hope of him waking again.

After the war between angels and devils, the angels cast magic on the devils, sealing them within their own minds. Then the devils were shattered into pieces and buried under holy sights around the world to be watched over by paragon of the faith. The magic the angels placed over these fragments, the Fragmentum Daebolin, would last for a thousand years.

As the angels are only psychic projections of the dying god, they exist in a realm of constant decay. Angels now seek to free themselves by entering our minds and manifesting a semi- physical, though not visible, form that they may use to interact with our world. They however are highly irrational and seek to kill humans to use our bodies as materials to form a new physical form with.

In the year 2032, the Fragmentum Daebolin have started to disappear and reappear in various locations around the world. These fragments can only be seen by a select few. And wielded by even fewer.

Setting

In the Alliance of Northern Territories, two factions formed in governing class. The loyalists and the separatists. The CPI, Center of Paranormal Interest, was asked to choose between the two sides. A massive storm of resignations followed. The CPI chose to instead dissolve and go underground.

Now a good number of CPI members work for the Absolutionists, an underground, unfunded group that wars with paranormal phenomena on a budget. They specialize in fighting angels and devils, but must keep an eye out for everything.

Duke Brugarn, Lord Minister of Toulon, oversees the province encompassing his brother King Erech's capital city, Eglamour. Calculating and ruthless, Brugarn has spent years methodically eroding Erech's confidence and effectiveness as a ruler. He usurps the throne with the intent to take it for himself, when the time is just right.

Though abrasive and quick-tempered, Brugarn meticulously cultivates alliances with nobles and court officials to support his plan. He is willing to do anything to achieve the crown, including instigating a war, because he knows Erech cannot command the loyalty of the army. Believing he has the best generals in his pocket, Brugarn envisions himself as the savior of the kingdom, the crown willingly given to him, as Erech withers into the shadows.

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Context: I write novels, half-tales, and online interactives with elements of epic fantasy, science fantasy, historical fiction, and steampunk. Brugarn is a key character in my epic fantasy novel Lords of Deception, which is about the secretive Order of the Candlestone. Emperors and kings thought it had been buried long ago, the grim deeds of its assassins forgotten and its dangerous alchemy shunned. But an old warrior-scholar is determined to revive the Order and return the continent to its primitive origins, if he can control his apprentices and overthrow rulers like Brugarn. More at r/Earthpillar

As the actual number of understandings of the ijris and the orljan are as plentiful as orljakti themselves, this is a violent simplification. This caveat given, there are benefits to categories and history lends itself to identifying four particular “families” of ijrisiorlja: tidal, maritime, riverbed, and riverbank. This is method of categorization is my own, and it is neither approved of nor condemned by powers that be. My secretaries, acolytes, scribes, sub-scribes, amenuensi, composers, poets, scholars-apprenticed, and some journeyman scribes on loan from the Irinith Academe have contributed, as has a donlen of the deer variety named “the way a lilac sounds when struck by a first drop of rain” in her language, which we cannot pronounce, who we call Lilacsong with her blessing.

Tidal The tidal family of ijrisioljra holds that the ijris is as an ocean and we mortals are the islands it makes waves upon and that we are beholden to influencing and being influenced by the ijris but are not carried by it. The tides rise and fall in cycles, in patterns, and these can be learned and - while not manipulated directly - relied upon once known. Particularly favored among academics, this family is seen in industrial and rural contexts.

Maritime The maritime family of ijrisioljra holds that we float upon the ijris and are at its whims yet held into life by it. For this family, movement along the ijris is typically focused on, especially mundane feats such as the cultivation of fields, scholarship, or keeping a balanced ledger. The currents of the ijris exist and are independent of waters and airs. Like the sailor, however, one can learn to use a combination of wind and water to accomplish greater distance than similar combinations on grounded land. This, of course, dismisses some of the recurring human technologies - such as locomotives and automobiles - as more ephemeral in nature. As such machineries are ever tied to their places of construction and their fuels to their places of appropriation, the fact that this family is more prevalent in non-industrialized regions makes sense. The ijris responds to this in kind.

Riverbed The riverbed family of ijrisioljra holds that we are as mortals surrounded by if not beneath the ijris. The ijris, this family believes, is pulled forward rather than pushed forward: “the waterfall calls the water forward, not the melting snow which birthed it.” Mortals are seen as rocks jutting out and up from the riverbed amid the rapids. There are two dominant divergences in this family: those that see the ijris as above and they themselves as the riverbed and those who see themselves as the boulder that rises above the current and diverts it. Overall, this family is common in both industrial and non industrial areas.

Riverbank The riverbank family holds that we mortals are as the riverbank to the river of the ijris. We are at times growing and at times shrinking, with the seasons, and at times the river overwhelms the banks and floods it, submerging and sometimes wholly altering the river as a whole. This is more common in rural areas than industrialized areas

Well hello there, this is my first post here, so I decide share a lil' bit about the thinks of making my fantasy world focus on wwII style. I was really thinking a lot about this, even though I began in a clasical fantasy world, develop it in a fantasy gunpownder and finishing in something a like to call a fantasy dieselpunk or something like that hehehehe.

I'm a simple Dm that goes to dnd and later on create his own roleplay game with his own universe.

World in Conflict between Evilness ?

Quickly, after making a lot of research and writing, and writing... and much more writing, I falling in love to the concept of "Good and Evil Conflict" of the classical fantasy, and decided to create (in some way it was fault of one of my players) the true enemie of all, a race that is the nightmare of the others, and I've been finished to create the feared Wroughts, mechanicals living being made by his father and god "The Conqueror".

It was not easy but I really loved the process until this moment of a world war conflict between the good and evil, the technology and the magic, the organics against the inorganics.

Hope you like this first and lil' opening of my world 😊😊

What do i need for my fantasy kingdom for my historical novel? Like locations (in the kingdom).

Do any of you have inorganic or synthetic lifeforms in your fantasy world's? How are you making them your own?

My setting (largely for my D&D games, one day for a novel) has Automatons. They were originally created by "the ancients" for reasons long lost. Because their brains (hard drives) degrade over time (like an SSD with limited flash rewrite cycles), they have a lifespan. Automatons have a highly structured caste system, linked to the primary metal of their construction, as follows:

Noble (Gold and Silver, Plus Electrum, Rose, and Sterling alloys): the ruling class, the aristocracy, the old money, they are suited to social skills and keeping track of complex social networks. Alchemist (Mercury, plus Amalgams): the priestly class, the philosophers, the closest to the creators, they have potent magical power and are the only ones capable of crafting new minds. Artificer (Copper, plus Brass alloys): the merchant and artisan class, inventors and craftsmen, the start of the middle class, they are suited to being engineers and are the only ones capable of crafting new hearts. Knight (Iron, plus Bronze alloys): the warrior class, the old guard, the defenders, they are powerfully built and resilient, tending toward traditionalism. Base (Lead, Tin, and Zinc): the miner class, the peasantry, commoners and laborers, they are numerous and easily replaced, and were considered largely unspecialized.

Automatons are fully synthetic. Their bodies can be endlessly repaired, giving them a long life, but their brains and hearts degrade over time, giving them a limited lifespan. Their heart is an elemental engine, binding an earth and a fire spirit inside to provide animating energy. Sufficient damage or removal of a heart results in death of the brain. The brain is a complex creation, both magical and technological, and damage to it is as dangerous as damage to a human's brain.

Traditional Automatons look like hairless humans with plain and neutral features, lacking secondary sex characteristics or genetalia. They have obvious seams at their joints, and these seams are always colored matching their caste metal. Their skin is hard and inflexible, like smooth warm metal, and is typically colored to match their caste, but this skin is just a covering. Some go without skin, especially Artificers who like to show off the intricate gearworks of their limbs, while others wear more flesh-like skin and clothes to better fit in with humans and other peoples. Young automatons have begun exploring more expressive physical augmentations, though.

To reproduce, an Automaton must construct a new automaton body, complete with an empty brain and a new heart. Once completed, 1 or more Automatons swap a part with the newforged (like an arm or a leg). The animating spirit of the father/s part/s grows to fill the newforged, allowing the spirit of the heart to awaken and bond with the brain, animating a new individual with shared traits from its father/s. When only one automaton creates a new automaton this way, the result is a similar newforged (imagine a lifetime of reflex but without memories). When multiple automatons contribute parts, the resulting newforged has a blend of their fathers traits.

Automatons traditionally are agender and asexual, but their social bonds can be romantic. Two (or sometimes more) partners create children as a way of passing part of themselves on, a largely logical reproductive drive wrapped in emotion. There are no "accidental" children, as the creation of a newforged automaton is a deliberate act at every step.

Alloys were unheard of until recent times. Originally, alloys were a secret kept by the Noble caste, hiding the Electrum (gold+silver), Rose (gold+copper) and Sterling (silver+copper) amongst them. As it sounds, alloys are born when two compatible automatons from different castes create a newforged. Because the castes traditionally did not interact (except for the nobles as they were leaders, generals, owners, and managers), no one realized it for generations, but eventually the secret was revealed. Now, alloys have a measure of social mobility, and are less tightly bound to their social caste. Because of this, the rigid caste system has lost some power in recent times, with rising influence among a middle class of merchants and artisans and new identity among the Base caste.

Because of growing interaction with Humans and other peoples, younger Automatons have begun exploring physical and social expression. While they are traditionally without gender, some have found joy in exploring gender and gender expression (Humans would consider typical Automatons to be masculine, but that's largely just because of their neuter physical features). Some are even exploring other physical augmentations to go along with their social exploration, making them more physically compatible with humans (not to get nsfw).

I've approached their design from a more sci-fi angle than a fantasy one, but my setting and storytelling is more fantasy. What do you think of mine? What are yours like?

The people have risen against the kingdom of Jessica and its oppressive government. The Farmers' Working Party has taken control of the capital, and a speech is about to be delivered by big sister who will discuss her vision for the new government. On this day, the people will be liberated. Privacy will become a thing of the past, while friendship, kindness, and acceptance will be outlawed. The citizens are already expressing their happiness for the new superstate and security cameras are being installed in their homes. The Farmers' Working Party has succeeded; the old government is dead. Long live the new superstate! Long live Big Sister! The end of the story

What do you think? I took heavy, and I mean heavy, inspiration from the book 1984.